In Thursday’s (2/20) Philadelphia Inquirer, David Patrick Stearns writes that “in anticipation of Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s 40th birthday in 2015” the Philadelphia Orchestra’s 2014-15 season “will be dominated by the ‘40/40 Project’—40 works not played by the orchestra during his lifetime … [including] oddly neglected suites from The Nutcracker and Porgy and Bess, Leopold Stokowski’s orchestration of the Rachmaninoff Prelude in C-sharp minor. But more sizable works include Janacek’s Glagolitic Mass (Oct. 16-18); Magnus Lindberg’s GRAFFITI, for chorus and orchestra (April 23-25, 2015); and the North American premiere of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s jazzy Piano Concerto (Jan. 22-23, 2015) … [and] the Bernstein Mass … [in which] the role of the celebrant will be played by Schuler Hensley, known for Wozzeck in Philadelphia and Young Frankenstein on Broadway. … Another looming influence over the season is the orchestra’s 2015 European tour—Nézet-Séguin’s first with the Philadelphians,” featuring Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 3 and a “new, as-yet-untitled Nico Muhly piece, commissioned on relatively short notice.” Also planned for 2014-15 are performances of Mahler’s Second Symphony and Bach’s St. Matthew Passion; concertos by Jennifer Higdon (violin), Michael Daugherty (tuba), and Stephen Paulus (organ); a three-week St. Petersburg Festival; and a “Valentine’s Day concert of Shakespeare-inspired music with the Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre.”
Posted February 21, 2014
Philadelphia Orchestra photo by Chris Lee
